In the process of manufacturing a substrate used in a flat panel display (FPD), a solar battery, or the like, various processes such as a film-forming process, an etching process, a heating process, and the like are typically carried out by using a substrate processing apparatus which provides a substrate mounting table in a chamber therein and mounts a substrate on the substrate mounting table to process the substrate thereon.
In such a substrate processing apparatus, the substrate is mounted onto and dismounted from the substrate mounting table by allowing lift pins to protrude upwardly and retreat downwardly (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-344675). Specifically, when the substrate is mounted onto the substrate mounting table, the lift pins are allowed to protrude upwardly and the substrate is transferred onto the protruding lift pins by a transfer arm. Then, the lift pins are retreated downwardly to mount the substrate on the substrate mounting table. When the substrate is dismounted from the substrate mounting table, the lift pins are allowed to protrude upwardly to dismount the substrate from the substrate mounting table. Then, the dismounted substrate is transferred by the transfer arm.
Meanwhile, the process, e.g., the film-forming process or the heating process, is carried out on the substrate while heating the substrate by a heater provided in the substrate mounting table. Since, however, holes through which the lift pins are inserted are formed on the substrate mounting table, the substrate is not directly in contact with the substrate mounting table at the portions thereof where the holes are formed. Accordingly, a heat amount transferred at the portions where the substrate is not directly in contact with the substrate mounting table becomes different from that transferred at the portion where the substrate is directly in contact with the substrate mounting table. For that reason, the in-plane temperature of the substrate becomes non-uniform.